Developing a plan to achieve a financial goal and carrying out the plan can be challenging for a large number of consumers. Consumers may face distractions or setbacks that prevent them from achieving a goal, or circumstances that existed when a plan was developed may change over time. Moreover, consumers may not have sufficient knowledge to develop an efficient plan for more complicated goals. A common option that consumers may choose is using a line of credit, such as a credit card, and paying down the line of credit over time, but this could be costly in terms of interest and the negative impact to their credit score.
There may be other, more efficient ways to achieve their goals, but without knowledge of these better ways, the consumers will not be able to choose them. Likewise, financial planners and advisors who do have knowledge of advanced techniques, may not be able to select the best option due to a lack of contextual information about the consumer's background.
Additional difficulties arise when consumers attempt to coordinate a plan for a financial goal that involves multiple parties. Integrating different personalities, desires, and financial knowledge into a single cohesive plan, and ensuring that each of the parties understand and complete their respective duties with regard to the plan can be difficult. Also, practical considerations such as how or where to maintain funds of respective parties can present additional problems
The above-described description is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of common financial planning systems, and is not intended to be exhaustive.